Dust accumulation on photovoltaic panels: a case study at the East Bank of the Nile (Beni-Suef, Egypt)

This article presents an evaluation of the electrical performance of Photovoltaic (PV) panels after exposure to natural dust accumulation. The present article is considered to be the first practical case study at the region of the East Bank of the Nile, implemented in Beni-Suef University (Egypt). After exposing two PV panels to the outdoor environment and letting the dust to be naturally accumulated for three months on their surfaces, a significant reduction in the performance of the dusty PV panel has been noticed compared to the performance of the other PV panel (reference) that has been cleaned regularly. Through analyzing the corresponding literature review, it has been found that it's not applicable to compare the results of the different studies, as many differences were found between them regarding many aspects, such as the testing methods, parameters, geographic locations of the experiments, and the adopted experimental procedures. Hence, in order to deal with those differences, a novel concept is introduced herein, which is the Photovoltaic Soiling Index (PVSI). (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.